


and who deserves a happy ever after?

by SoftKing



Category: The Witcher (TV)
Genre: AND A FUTURE, Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Anger, Angry Jaskier | Dandelion, Angst, Break Up, Creature Jaskier | Dandelion, Famous Jaskier | Dandelion, Friendship, Gen, Heavy Angst, Jaskier | Dandelion & Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg Friendship, Jaskier | Dandelion Has a Past, Jealousy, M/M, Possessive Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Post-Canon, Reconciliation, big warning, more tags to come, on the angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:15:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22826227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoftKing/pseuds/SoftKing
Summary: Years after the mountain, Geralt is alone again. Yennefer denies his attachment to her, living her own life as well as she can. Jaskier left immediately after the Witcher's outburst, finding what pleases him.And Geralt... he's living. Well, surviving.After a successful hunt, he hears about a concert going on nearby and decides to check out the main attraction.
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion, Jaskier | Dandelion & Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg, Jaskier | Dandelion/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 47





	and who deserves a happy ever after?

**Author's Note:**

> This is gonna be a long one. Well for me, it will be, it should be only 8-10 chapters but we shall see, yeah? These things always turn out longer don't they.  
> As always, unbeta'd, all mistakes are my own

Geralt didn’t find himself in the city often. In fact, he tries to stay away from crowded places in general unless the promise of money brought him in. 

This happened to be one of those times, Geralt had been hired by an outlying town to take care of an aggressive coven of witches. Normally he would have told them to mind their business and leave them be but after the townsfolk revealed the abductions and subsequent body drops, he took the job. He had dispatched them with few injuries, nothing serious, he assured the nurse that offered to check him over and collected his payment. He meandered through the streets afterward, bored as hell, not yet ready to return to Roach. A neon blue sign across the street caught his eye, _Warlock and Key_. Rolling his eyes heavily, just for himself, he made his way to the bar. The amount of empty bottles in the window were promising at least.

Geralt ordered a series of whiskey shots, ignoring the squint and twisted mouth of the bartender, who Geralt guessed was wondering how long they had until he was passed out on their floor dead. He knocked back half the shots in quick succession, knowing exactly how much it would take to get him properly drunk. Still, getting a plate of burger sliders seemed to lessen the tension in the bartender’s shoulders. 

Only to get their eyes off him, of course. One can only stand being stared at in concern for so long…

Switching between eating and drinking, the witcher tried to ignore the small but loud groups of people scattered throughout the bar. It was a casual place, pop and rock came through the speakers just loud enough to be heard throughout the room, there was no dance floor, only tables and chairs. He felt his focus shift from the food in his hand to the chatter of the groups behind him, curiosity taking hold when one person mentioned that the windows in their apartment had been broken, again. He sunk into the casual atmosphere, willing his post-hunt nerves away with greasy food and burning alcohol.  


* * *

Geralt was restless. He had worked his way through the rest of his 8 shots in under an hour and was contemplating getting more just to soothe the itch of inactivity in his muscles when a familiar voice caught his ear. His head whipped up, eyes locking on the TV perched on the ceiling near the drink rack, the quality wasn’t horrible but even if it had been, he would have recognized that voice anywhere.

**Jaskier.**

He was singing softly, the image of a young man standing in the ocean, waves crashing against his clothed legs. The camera panned up and Geralt’s mouth parted with an “oh”, the singer was as smooth faced as the day Geralt left him, the only mirage of age on his face was the dark makeup over both eyes. Other than that, it was him. Shifting his upper body to hang over the edge of the bar, he allowed the song and visual of his old friend playing a guitar, splashing through the ocean and smiling wash over him. A shot of the man’s deep blue eyes reflecting the broad expanse of the ocean came next, the colors blending together until one could no longer tell where man ended and the sea began. White text scrawled across the bottom of the frame, _You & Jennifer_ read aloud in a smooth and husky voice, it was the only thing Geralt could hear in the bar now.

Geralt sunk back into his chair as the next commercial started playing, something about a sport or whatever. How long had it been since he saw Jaskier? 8 years? More? He couldn’t remember anymore and that in itself was a bad sign. He sighed and rubbed a hand down his face, of course the singer had been growing in popularity when they travelled together and it made sense that it would continue even if they split ways but seeing the man on television had basically given him whiplash. A pair of pants crept a little closer from over the bar.

“Uh, sir? You okay?”

Geralt looked up at the nervous bartender and Godsdamnit, everyone looked so young. He cleared his throat and nodded once, placing plenty of money on the countertop to cover the bill. 

“The man on the television before, do you know him?”

They threw an incredulous look his way and flipped through the bills, ”Y’mean Jaskier? Course I do, he’s been all over Twitter for the last… 5 years, I think.”

The witcher’s brow furrowed at the mention of social media, yet another thing he stayed away from. The barkeep caught the look and winced, “I really don’t mean to overstep my bounds but you have a phone at least, yeah?”

He nodded and they held out a hand, motioning for him to hold it over. Reluctantly, he pulled the barely used smartphone out of his leather jacket’s pocket and placed it in their waiting hand. They unlocked it, tapped around and set it down on the counter, telling him not to touch it while they were gone.

After serving a few more people and ringing up tabs, most people had left the bar for the night and they returned.

“Not a single app. Right, what’s your name? Or what do you want people to call you?”

“It’s Geralt.”

“Oh, shit! You’re the White Wolf! That explains the whole Jaskier thing, but I would have thought you to know him better.”

A tinge of pain ran through his chest at the mention of the name and he hummed, watching as the typing intensified until they tilted the phone up at his face, flashing a picture and waving off the warning growl at the action. Geralt felt less and less sure of handing over his phone, trying to have patience and ignore the growing temptation to snatch the phone back and see what the hell they were doing. Mid internal rant, the phone was shoved back toward him, screen displaying a white screen with blue lines of text and a few images. He took it back and looked closer at it, the pictures were of Jaskier, all bright smiles and shining blue eyes. The bartender explained that it was the singers page, a place he posted almost everyday and that he could check up on what had been going on with the man.

“And the world in general, you seem like the recluse type.” He gave them a dry, withering stare and mumbled a ‘thanks’.

“You’re perfectly welcome, but I’m closing up soon so… Go on and do some reading at home, I’ve got to clean up.”

Geralt barely remembered finding his way back to Roach, busy scrolling through the flood of posts that Jaskier made on a daily basis. When he did find his motorcycle, he leaned up against the seat and stopped at one post in particular.

It was a picture. 

Of Jaskier and Yennefer.

And they seemed… fine? Happy even. Jaskier had an obnoxiously large grin on his face, glitter and gold decorating his face, giving the camera a wink. Yennefer looked amused, violet eyes stuck to Jaskier’s profile, one hand held a makeup brush and the other was resting on the man’s cheek, attempting to turn him back around. The caption read, “This week NYC, next week Nashville! Thank you all for attending last night's show, please enjoy some behind the scenes content and I love you all!! Special thanks to Yennefer for adding some _magic_ to my looks on tour <3” this was followed by an insane amount of emojis. Geralt tapped the comments, searching for more information, passing all the compliments, well wishes and inappropriate questions, until…

**There.**

It was a picture of a ticket in response to the post, made barely 5 minutes ago, the poster claiming how excited they were for the show. He scanned the ticket, finding the location easily and typing it into maps, thanking whoever was listening that he had basic knowledge of how to use his phone and it was simply willful ignorance instead of just plain idiocy.

He climbed on Roach and for once in his damned life, he was glad it took so much alcohol to even get him tipsy, he kicked the stand up and turned the ignition. The concert was 20 minutes away and he needed to be there in 10. 

He could make it.  He was just… curious to see what Jaskier and Yen were up to, maybe he could find out how the hell the singer remained so youthful. That's all.  


Maybe he could… no. There'd be time for that later.

His motorcycle took off down the street with a roar, wondering why his stomach felt so light and flippy. He really hadn't had that much to drink.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to be 100% honest, I'm not sure how happy this one's going to be. In fact, I think it's going to be pretty damn sad for Geralt here.  
> ALL ABOARD THE ANGST TRAIN
> 
> Leave a kudos or comment if you enjoyed! I really appreciate them and try to respond to everyone, but school's keeping me busy! <3


End file.
